There's a lot of pessimism about London, Ontario's real estate market right now — fed largely by headlines designed to grab attention, not inform decisions. Yes, there's more inventory than a couple of years ago, and some buyers are sitting out. Both are true. But the same data can be framed as a crisis or accurately — and the accurate version still shows homes selling at strong prices every single month. Ty Lacroix, Broker at The Envelope Real Estate Group, has spent 24 years watching headlines come and go while patient, prepared buyers and sellers keep transacting regardless.

There's a lot of pessimism right now about the London, Ontario real estate market being a buyer's market. Some of that pessimism is fed by talking heads on TV and radio, and some by people who simply enjoy being the bearer of bad news.

There's no disputing the underlying facts: there are more homes for sale now than there were a couple of years ago, and some buyers are hesitant or unable to act. Both of those things are true.

But people gravitate toward pessimism — especially when it comes to real estate. The same data, framed two different ways, produces two very different reactions.

The Same Facts, Two Headlines

Which headline gets more attention: a plane crash, or the fact that tens of thousands of flights landed safely yesterday? Both are true on any given day. One gets the coverage.

It's the same with real estate. "It's a buyer's market" sounds alarming. "Homes in London are selling at 97.4% of asking price" is the same underlying reality, told accurately instead of dramatically.

Or consider unemployment. A 5% unemployment rate sounds concerning in isolation. The same number means that 95% of people in the workforce have jobs. Both are accurate. Only one is designed to alarm you.

What's Actually Happening

Some buyers who would genuinely benefit from buying right now aren't acting — not because the opportunity isn't there, but because they're missing one piece of what they need to move forward: the financial readiness, a clear need driving the decision, or simply the confidence to act in a market that the headlines have told them to fear.

For buyers who do have what they need — readiness, a real reason to move, and the financial capacity to act — this is a genuinely strong opportunity. For sellers who are equally prepared — priced correctly, presented well, and ready to engage with serious buyers — this remains a good time to sell.

Action Gets Results

I'm a firm believer that action produces outcomes. The commentators, the economists, and the news anchors aren't the ones buying or selling homes. They're reporting on a market they don't have a personal stake in transacting within.

Homes and condos in London continue to sell. It may take longer than it did during the frenzied years, but a patient, prepared homeowner — and a patient, prepared buyer — consistently come out ahead of anyone waiting for the headlines to feel better before they act.

If you're trying to decide whether now is the right time for your specific situation, that decision should be based on your readiness and your goals — not on which headline got the most clicks this week.

Ready to look past the headlines and talk about your actual situation? Reach out for a private conversation — no pressure, no pitch.

A spreadsheet can calculate mortgage payments, property taxes, and utility costs. It can't calculate what a private backyard is worth to you, what a particular view means, or what it feels like to walk into the right home. Investors run spreadsheets because they're buying an asset. Homebuyers are buying a life — and reducing that decision to a column of numbers misses almost everything that actually matters. Ty Lacroix, Broker at The Envelope Real Estate Group, has spent 24 years helping London buyers find the home that's right for them, not just the one that pencils out.

Will a real estate spreadsheet help you decide on buying a home in London, Ontario? In my years as a broker, I hear it constantly: "I'll add it to my spreadsheet and get back to you." Or, "I'll run the numbers and see if it works."

Here's the honest question worth asking back: what exactly does a spreadsheet account for?

A spreadsheet doesn't have rationality, reasonability, or common sense built into it — it only has whatever numbers you feed it. It can't account for optimism, patience, or the simple desire to feel settled. It has no concept of uncertainty, doubt, or regret, and it doesn't suffer from analysis paralysis the way a person staring at it for the tenth time does. A spreadsheet can't rationalize what a private backyard is worth to you, what a particular view means every morning, or why a specific layout finally feels like home after years of living somewhere that didn't.

It also can't weigh your commute, whether you need a dedicated work-from-home space, the school catchment, how walkable the neighbourhood is, or whether the area's demographics genuinely fit your stage of life.

When a Spreadsheet Actually Makes Sense

When I worked with investors, nearly all of them ran spreadsheets — and the most successful ones did it properly. They modelled a 20-year time horizon, deliberately stripped emotion from the decision, and factored in what might change over that period: new nearby construction, shifting traffic patterns, or regulatory changes that could affect their return. For an investor, that's exactly the right approach. The property is an asset. The spreadsheet should rule.

A home buyer's decision is different in kind, not just in degree.

What a Spreadsheet Actually Tells You

Morgan Housel put it simply: financial decisions are not made in spreadsheets or textbooks. For a home buyer, a spreadsheet is genuinely useful for one thing — calculating your mortgage payment, property taxes, and utility costs. That's it. That's the full extent of what it can responsibly tell you.

A home may not be the most financially optimal investment you'll ever make. But a home is you. It's your family, your retreat, your safety zone, the place you actually live your life rather than just hold as an asset on paper. There's no column for that. There's no formula that captures what it's worth to wake up in the right place.

Prudence has its place, and the numbers matter — knowing what you can genuinely afford protects you from a decision you'd regret. But once the numbers confirm you can afford it, the decision about which home is the right one is a human decision, not a mathematical one. Treating it purely as the latter means optimizing for the wrong outcome.

If you're looking for a home in London and trying to balance what makes financial sense with what actually feels right for your next chapter, that's exactly the conversation worth having — with someone who understands both sides of that equation.

Looking for the right home, not just the right number? Reach out for a private conversation — no pressure, no pitch.

For the complete buyer framework: London Ontario Home Buyer's Guide →

This is a historical snapshot — London, Ontario, for May 2025. Markets move month to month. For current stats and my honest read on where each part of the city is actually heading, see my London neighbourhood market updates — ten neighbourhoods, refreshed monthly. Or for what your specific home is worth in today's market, reach out for a personal analysis. No pressure, no pitch.

What a great time for home buyers in London, Ontario, and the surrounding area. With a 15.3% increase in new listings, active listings increased 26.5% in May!

I say this because prices rose by 1.4% in May, which is below the inflation rate.

We have all read about people buying when everyone else is selling and selling when everyone else is buying. When the stock market plunged, smart money bought or averaged out their investments.

Some will say it takes nerves to do that; it is risky. What if prices go down, interest rates go up, it will be too warm tomorrow, or it might rain, or, worst of all, not everybody is doing that, so I will stick with the herd, but not try to look and behave like the sheep!

The May 2025 London, Ontario & Surrounding Area Real Estate Market

The table below displays May’s average prices and MLS® HPI Benchmark Prices in LSTAR’s (London St. Thomas Association of Realtors) central regions.

The HPI benchmark price reflects the value of a “typical home” for buyers in a given area, based on various housing attributes. In contrast, the average sales price is calculated by summing the sale prices of all homes sold. Dividing that total by the number of homes sold. The HPI benchmark price helps gauge trends over time, as averages may fluctuate due to changes in the mix of sales activity from month to month.

In May 2025, the MLS® Home Price Index Benchmark Price for the London and St. Thomas area showed varied trends. The composite benchmark price was $593,900. Reflecting a slight increase of 0.8% from the previous month. A decrease of 4.5% over three months and 2.2% over twelve months.

Single-family homes had a benchmark price of $651,500, up 1.6% from last month. A 13.6% decline over the past three years!

One-storey homes saw the most significant monthly increase, up 3.5% to $602,700. Two-storey homes rose modestly by 0.6% to $691,700.

If You Are Thinking of Buying, This is a Great Time

Townhouses and apartments experienced declines. The benchmark prices of $488,200 and $369,500, respectively, indicate a challenging market for these property types.

Over the past five years, one-storey homes have grown the fastest, up 55.9%, highlighting long-term appreciation in this segment.

The following table displays May’s benchmark prices for all housing types within LSTAR’s jurisdiction. Showing how they compare with those recorded in the previous month and three months ago.

In summary, what to do? To Sherlock Holmes: “The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance observes”!

What Prudent Home Buyers Do

Before buying or selling a home in London, Ontario, most people try to understand the market through Realtor.ca, open houses, economists, news headlines, and opinions from anyone they trust. None of those sources give you what actually works: firsthand experience of the market itself. We call it market education — viewing three or four properties similar to what you're buying or selling, with no obligation, no pressure, and no chequebook in sight. Past clients consistently say it was the single thing that made their eventual decision clearer and less stressful. Ty Lacroix and Michael Theisen, with The Envelope Real Estate Group, have offered this approach to London buyers and sellers for years — because an informed client makes a better decision, every time.

Would you like to better understand the London, Ontario real estate market — and stop being swayed by opinions from well-meaning people who don't actually know?

Here's a partial list of where most buyers and sellers try to get their market intelligence:

Scrolling through Realtor.ca or a real estate website. Attending open houses. Listening to what economists say or predict. The local newscast or newspaper. National averages, or what's happening in the GTA or Vancouver. Your parents. Your children. Your relatives, coworkers, pickleball friends, golf buddies, church members, and neighbours. Your bank representative, mortgage broker, realtor, financial advisor, lawyer, doctor, hairdresser, barber, plumber, or electrician. The doom-sayers. And anyone else you've decided has their act together.

Some of these sources are useful for context. None of them tell you what the London market actually feels like — what homes in your price range and neighbourhood really look like in person, how they compare to each other, and what a realistic expectation should be before you're sitting across from a seller with a deadline on an offer.

What We Actually Do — And Why It Works

We call it market education, and it looks like this: before you buy, sell, or commit to anything, we take you out to view three or four properties similar to what you're looking for — or similar to your current home if you're selling.

Not to make an offer. Not to buy anything. Just to learn.

The goal is simple: when you're ready to act, you'll already know what to expect. You'll have seen the market with your own eyes, not through someone else's filter. You'll be able to clarify what you actually want versus what you thought you wanted — and you'll be genuinely prepared to make a good decision rather than a reactive one.

Here's what market education is not:

No obligation on your part — no signing anything, just an old-fashioned face-to-face meeting that past clients consistently say helped them more than anything else in the process.

No chequebook required — you're here to learn, not to buy.

No "we're number one, we sell gazillions of homes" performance.

No miracle promises about finding your dream home for half the price.

No pressure, no coffee-and-a-pitch, no "buy from me, I'm a neighbour, a friend, I'm honest" routine. You're not bringing your chequebook, and we're not bringing ours.

Does It Work?

Here's what two past clients said after going through it:

"Ty, your market education system is wonderful!" — Marilyn Cuthbert

"Ty, you made our decision so much easier with your market education, thank you." — Philip Rosenburg

Market education requires a commitment of time and energy from both sides — from you and from us. We take it seriously because clients who arrive at a transaction informed and clear-eyed consistently have better experiences and outcomes than those who are figuring it out under pressure.

Michael Theisen, Sales Representative with The Envelope Real Estate Group, was trained in this approach and offers the same market education for buyers working with him. The same standard, the same no-pressure format, the same goal: clarity before commitment.

If you're trying to understand what the London market actually looks like before you make a move — with no obligation and nothing to sign — that's exactly the conversation to start with.

Ready to see the market for yourself before you decide anything? Book a private, no-obligation market education session — no pressure, no pitch, no chequebook required.